Agile Bottom Line: The Spreadsheet Stories

"The problem with this thing is…” The CFO picks up the 3-inch thick budget book that he had just presented to the Board. “… it's worthless. It tells me nothing about the risk or opportunities we're facing. We all know the numbers in here are completely made up. I can't manage the business with this." He tosses the book into the trashcan by his desk, and with a challenging look says to me: "Find a better way..."

That was the beginning of a major organization-wide transformation that resulted in our company not only replacing traditional budgets with rolling forecasts, but changing all the collateral processes - targets, rewards, controls, resource allocation, and many others. It allowed us to shift to a management system that was agile, effective, and exceptionally successful - and it all started with the most unexpected part of the business… with Finance.

About Nevine White:
Beginning her 35-year career in telecom engineering, Nevine moved on to leading the FP&A function for TW Telecom for two decades. There she championed powerful changes in financial planning that enabled an agile and effective management structure by eliminating traditional budgets. After the sale of the company, Nevine continued this work with Live Future Ready, leveraging her experience to support organizations in their financial transformation efforts across various industries. In 2019, Nevine joined Hargray Communications Group as the VP Accounting, before taking on building the Finance and Administrative functions for a broadband start-up. Recognized for her experience in finance agility and building effective teams, she has been featured at conferences and on podcasts, and enjoys sharing her learnings and experiences with all who are seeking to meaningfully change and enable their teams.